Disconnected
by seeleybaby
Summary: Booth breaks up with Tessa
1. Chapter 1

Here's a story that started over on the Boneyard. The challege was to write Booth's breakup with Tessa. The only rules were that no cheating could have occured, and that Booth couldn't actually speak to Brennan. Only actual dialogue from the show could be used between them.

"So, how was your day?"

An innocent enough question, but…Booth just sat there.

How was his day? Let's see, he killed someone. 'I need a face, I need a face'…He shot a man, a target, whatever. That made for a bad day, but…how do you even describe that to someone? His mind flashed back to the bar at Wong Foo's. He'd had no problem describing how he'd felt to his partner. "There's no pleasure in taking someone's life" he'd said. Nothing to celebrate. But, now, here…could he really talk about it?

"Fine" he passed the salad. "My day was fine, how was yours?"

"Fine" Tessa passed the bread. "My day was fine."

The rest of the meal passed in silence.

Two weeks later, Booth woke up to find Tessa pressed against him in his bed, and he turned to look at her to find her looking back at him.

"Do you really have to go to Washington?"

He sighed. "Yes, this morning. Apparently someone found a human eaten by a bear and, I guess…"

"Ew, gross…stop…I don't want to hear about that. That's disgusting. I just do not get it how someone could want to be around that kind of thing all the time." Tessa laughed, smoothing her hands around his waist.

He chuckled half-heartedly.

"I'm sorry you have to go, Seeley. And with Dr. Brennan?" Tessa laughed. "I'm sure she'll be a great travel companion." She continued, a bit sarcastically.

Booth conceded this with a slight nod and his mind moved toward his partner. Maybe he'd misrepresented her a bit to Tessa, but…Bones could be demanding, and harsh, and…well, he knew Tessa wouldn't quite get it, so he'd left it there.

"Well" Tessa continued, moving to kiss him. "When you come back, maybe we should take a vacation."

He looked at her, surprised.

"Okay, yeah, sure…"


	2. Chapter 2

Two weeks later, Booth knew he was in trouble.

"You were late." She'd stood at the party alone for thirty minutes until he'd gotten there.  
"I'm sorry, Tessa. I had to run by the Jeffersonian." He told her for the third time as they entered her apartment.  
"To see her."  
"No, not to see her." And was it bad that they both automatically knew just who the 'her' was?

"Then why? Why didn't you call?" Tessa paused and cringed, knowing she sounded like a nag. She really tried to understand him, she did. But…he'd changed in the past few months. He'd grown quieter, yet he never complained about work. Like now, for example…

"Tessa…"  
"Seeley…is this…is this really working out?"  
"What? Yes, yes, Tessa, come on…look. I'm sorry. I had to run to the Jeffersonian to bail out Hodgins from going to this bigwig, corporate party."

Tessa flinched. He knew she worked in corporate law, and that she liked it, but he could never seem to get past some of the lifestyles of her clients or her employers.

"So you were late because you had to help out some, 'squint' as you call them?"

Booth frowned. "That's not very nice."  
"You call them squints. I'm just repeating what you said!"

"Yeah, but, I don't know, they're kind of on my team now. They are my squints." He chuckled affectionately.

"Even Dr. Brennan?" Tessa's voice had grown a bit colder.

Booth sighed and walked over to her, setting his hands, and moving them down her arms, pulling her into a hug.

"Bones is my partner, that's all."

An image of her in her party dress flashed through his mind. He took a deep breath and tried to dispel the image, but it was just superimposed by another image of his partner…bending down to look into the face of Shawn Cook, empathizing with his experiences in the foster system. He'd understood more about her in that moment, and he knew she understood him when she'd told him she'd made the promises he now had to keep. "But you don't believe in heaven" he'd said. "But you do." She'd replied. They understood each other.

"I just don't understand you sometimes, Seeley" Tessa pulled her face back to look at him. He bit his lip and looked down at her.  
"Tessa…" it was now or never "I think…I think we should…go on vacation."

She smiled and wrapped her arms around him.

Booth looked up at the ceiling. He was doing the right thing.


	3. Chapter 3

Two weeks later, Booth stood outside her door, leaning against it, the paper bag with ice cream and two spoons lying beside him. He knocked again, and he could hear her inside, waiting, punishing him by not answering right away.

She opened it, angry.

"It's my job, Tessa."

"To bail her out now too?"

"What? No…well, yes, she's my partner, so I guess it is my job, but…that's not what this was."

"So you didn't make us leave our date to go look at a meth-filled, mummy inhabiting club because it was your job?"

"No, I mean, yes, I…I don't know. Look, I brought ice cream." He held up the bag as if the contents could somehow be enough.

She rolled her eyes.

"Ice cream doesn't solve the world's problems, Seeley."  
"Well…it should. It's good." He smiled.

She chuckled. "Ah…" he knew the smile would work, "Come on Tessa, I'm sorry. Let's not fight about this. Come on, we're going on vacation this week…Jamaica" he laughed when she smiled and yanked the bag from his hand, pulling out the ice cream and turning toward the kitchen.

As he watched her go, he realized he really wanted this vacation to work. He wanted things to work with Tessa…at least, he thought he did. Hopefully they could just get away and figure it out.


	4. Chapter 4

Two days later, Booth was sitting by himself at the bar. It was almost funny, it was so ironic. Tessa… 'something had come up at work', she'd said, and she couldn't go to Jamaica. He wasn't surprised. Angela had made them both nervous enough with her little relationship 'stage' pep talk, and when Tessa had knocked on his door, he'd known this was about more than just the vacation. He thought back to their final conversation…

_"Come on, Tessa…work? Listen, I got off of work, you should be able to."  
"Oh, so your work is more important than mine!"_

_"Well, maybe."_

_"What?" She'd been furious._

_"I help people who need it, Tessa. You…you make rich people richer! I save people's lives."  
"You kill people too, don't forget that Seeley."_

_He'd flinched, hurt. "You know I hate that." His voice was quiet.  
"Do I? You never talk to me anymore!" she yelled. "You thought this vacation was going to save this relationship, didn't you?"_

_He'd stood there, letting his silence indicate agreement._

_"Well, it's too late now, isn't it Seeley. It's too late."  
"Tessa…" he'd thought to make one more attempt._

_"No…it's too late. Get your things, and you can send mine over to me. It's over. I'm sorry." She'd looked at him, and they had both recognized the truth. "Sometimes, Seeley…I just don't get you."_

Booth pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes, the movement pulling his white polo shirt tight across his shoulders. He'd given up on the idea of 'the one' a long time ago. That one person who could understand what his job meant, someone who he could share his life with, both good and bad, over dinner. Someone he was comfortable enough talking to, that one person he'd be willing to maybe share his past with in hopes it could turn into a future. He'd given up on that idea long ago. He sipped his drink and even though he wasn't that upset about Tessa, he still felt…lonely…that inevitable loneliness he knew was his destiny. No one…no one could be 'the one', and his most recent attempt to make do with something else had failed.

With a sigh he set his drink back on the table and turned when he heard a noise to his left, someone sitting beside him at the bar.

"Getting yourself in the mood?"

Bones.


	5. Chapter 5

A week later, he arrived home from Jamaica. He pulled into his driveway and carried his suitcase up the steps, surprised when he opened his door to see a small brown box addressed to him. He didn't think he was expecting any packages, and there wasn't a return address on the outside of the box.

He pulled it and grabbed the rest of his mail, putting it on the table before opening the box. Inside was a note, and he opened it.

"Hey, Booth.

It's Angela. Brennan 'lost' this, but hey, you found it, in the front seat of your car.

Lucky us! Now push play."

Booth looked in the box to see his partner's little handheld tape recorder thingy. Confused, he pulled it up and hit the play button. It was hard to hear what was being said, almost as if the recorder had been in a pocket, maybe the pocket of a lab coat. He pulled it closer to his ear. It sounded like they were talking about something in the lab, and he heard his partner tell Angela she was an anthropologist.

"They got to stage five, and they balked." Angela was saying.

"Not Booth. Booth does not balk." He heard Bones say.

"Sweetie, it's always the guy."  
"Booth is not a balker."

He pushed stop and looked over to his right, almost as if he thought someone else might be standing there. Eyebrows raised, he pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek and gave a half chuckle.

Not a bad day.

.


End file.
